The best gardening services in Canberra [2024]

I heartily recommend Anthony Gall from AG Gardening and Lawn Services. He does everything from garden clean ups to gutter cleaning, and he’s a hardworking, decent and honest man with EXTREMELY reasonable prices. I was delighted with his work, and he quoted me on removing a huge clump of convovulus for a more than reasonable price. He’s quick to respond to enquiries and very polite, and extremely reliable. I couldn’t be happier with him, and his family run business. Local Canberra bloke, bringing up a family in Weston Creek, and operating as a sole trader, training up his son to help. Lovely, lovely man.

Budget Garden Care ACT services are very good.

I finally received a text from Matt on 4 June 2020, stating that he was unwell and was not able to make it and was very apologetic. He said that he will contact me as soon as he feels better. That gave me some reassurance. Thank you for getting back to me Matt and I hope you feel better soon. I am happy and I look forward to touching base with him as soon as he feels better.

I asked Matt from Branch out Canberra for jobs in our garden. He said that he would come to our place on Saturday. He didn’t turn up and has not communicated back to us for over 5 days if he is coming to our place or not. I found this lack of communication and commitment to get the jobs very disappointing. He has not even communicated to us if he is unable to do the task. This has left us in the dark and we need our garden fixed urgently.

Without hesitation I am happy to recommend
Matthew of Branch Out on 0405 031 390 for any minor or heavy work pruning, trimming trees and shrubs.

Shortly after my last comment appeared in The RiotAct, Matthew of Branch Out was recommended as possibly able to help me out. I phoned, left a message, Matthew returned my call an hour or so later and arranged to come and give me a quote the same afternoon.
He arrived promptly and we spent at least 30 minutes walking around the garden and discussing all that needed to be done.
To put this job into perspective, I had a large overgrown back garden and there were 43 shrubs between 1 ½ and 3 metres high, plus 6 mature trees. They have been neglected for a few years and it was a jungle of foliage and misshapen plants. Matthew noted everything, gave me a very fair quote and we arranged for the work to be done over a couple of days the following week.
Matthew and his assistant arrived promptly and early to start work. He re-checked with me and apart from an occasional discussion to be sure I was happy with height of trim etc I left them to get on with it, because it was perfectly clear he knew exactly what he was doing. At one point we decided a very old tree needed to come out, as it was suckering all over the place. Matthew dug out and removed below ground level so the roots can be poisoned.
By the end of the day the job was finished, the garden looked amazing, with space and light restored and gave me hope again. The whole mountain of trim and big branches were loaded and taken away.

I need a thorough prune and tidy up of a large garden I cannot manage on my own.
Am happy to pay a fair price because it is a big job. Have always found good tradespeople etc through RiotAct in the past.
I have phoned first Brian’s Home & Garden and then Foralis on your list above, twice each over a couple of weeks, requesting a call back to arrange a quote. Neither has bothered to return my call.
I can accept that they may be overloaded with work and do not want to take on another job, and would accept that as an answer, but to just ignore a call is rude. It has delayed me making any other arrangement. This happens w other tradesman and it does their reputation no good.

I can highly recommend Rowan from Foralis. I needed some work done leading up to Christmas. I called a few places and organised for a couple of people to come around. Neither turned up. Rowan was very prompt, turned up when he said he would, and did a great job.

Thanks for all the replies. I’ve looked up the plants mentioned and I actually have Viburnum tinus and Photinia ‘Robusta’ growing as giant shrubs (decades old garden – previous owner did random planting all over the pace) in other areas of the garden – I just didn’t know their names. So yes, I agree actually, as hedges they would be good – but yes, Photinia stinks – I think it smells like mosquito repellent! Perhaps Viburnum is the way to go. As for the side of the house, there is no neighbour directly on the other side to worry about, as such. Along this fence is a large grassy area and footpath, and then on the other side, the houses there are further up the street, and look down into our garden and on to our deck, as does the footpath – just want a bit of privacy from that when we are on the deck. We could put up a screen of some sort, but was hoping for some greenery. I love tea tree, so maybe that could be a good way to go. There used to be a giant cotoneaster there, but it was removed to make way for the new fence… (awesome to attract beautiful birds to the garden, but giant weed and in the way)

Thanks again for all the suggestions!

…and 1.8m high and only 1.5m from the house and they need to keep at least a metre wide walkway.

Apple trees, particularly young trees, are not mushrooms and even when espaliered they have some width.

On the longest day of the year, the Summer Solstice of December 21st, the sun will still be 12° north and the roots of the Apple tree will be permanently in shade and the sun almost but not quite vertical, so very little of an espaliered structure will be receiving sun.

I can’t see the sun reaching anything that close to the south side of a fence for six months of the year and when it does it won’t do it much good.

I don’t know if you noticed the mature date palms that were planted for some insane reason on the south side of the Belconnen Aquatic Centre. Despite their height, most of the bottom of the palms were in perpetual shade even in summer.

They died. Expensive and predictable.

rubaiyat said :

Southmouth said :

Espalier apples or plums on your colourbond fence

The fence is facing south.

Yep. I can read. I’ve done it myself. works great on a wire trellis 300mm from the fence. You realise that fruit trees are dormant in winter and thus need no sun? They get plenty of sun for the 6 months that matter.

Whatever you do, do NOT plant Photinia. Not only doers it stink when flowering, that stink also aggravates allergies in people who suffer hay fever. There is so much of it in Canberra I am completely astounded it hasn’t been deemed a noxious weed. It isn’t native either and needs a lot of maintenance to keep it tidy as it grows very tall.
Be considerate to the neighbor and also don’t plant Pittosporium or “screen master”. That stuff drops little messy leaves all over the place, the house we rented long ago had neighboring shrubs along the fence and our yard always needed raking up of these little messy leaves.
Tea trees are at least native and evergreen, that’s my recommendation.

Southmouth said :

Espalier apples or plums on your colourbond fence

The fence is facing south.

rijujacob said :

Try Photinia ‘Robusta’ . You’ll get it in most stores including bunnings. they are drought hardy and like slope as they need well drained soils. Suggestion is to go to any local nursery say, Willow Park nursery and talk to any horticulturist there.

Photinia stinks when in flower. Avoid…… avoid.

I can’t understand why anyone would want it near their house.

“Second, along the side of my house, we have a 1.8m colourbond fence, south facing. Although it’s high, it doesn’t provide enough privacy into the garden. So, I’d like to grow something up it against it, and hopefully higher than the fence”

My first though is, is there a neighbour on the other side of that fence? It would be neighbourly not to block their sun. Something I am always aware of and make a conscious effort not to do. A 1.8 metre high fence should give plenty of privacy. Most people are shorter than that. Is there some other reason?

Photinia flowers STINK and attract blowies!

Espalier apples or plums on your colourbond fence

For the fence try a climbing fig, it is nice and flat, vigorous and tough. Nowhere as invasive as ivy.

Stick with what works in Canberra, not much does. Something I know from long experience with trying alternatives and watching neighbours replace their plants 3 times as well.

That is Photinia Robusta. A bit woody, but it is tough and grows to fill out the hedge very well. Give it lots of room, at least 1.5m wide, and do not stop trimming it. Lightly and often works well.

In the Yarra Valley recently I saw magnificent, fragrant Bay hedges and as my Bay Tree goes gang busters, this could be an alternative.

Quick suggestions:
– for the first space, hazels play well with oaks and make decent hedging. Get a mix of types for pollination and you’ll get nuts too.
– think about a climber of some kind, on simple wire trellis, above the height of the fence. There are tough and deciduous climbers available (I’m just about to plant some hop rhizomes to do something similar). If you don’t need it to drop leaves, hardenbergia might work well.

Try Photinia ‘Robusta’ . You’ll get it in most stores including bunnings. they are drought hardy and like slope as they need well drained soils. Suggestion is to go to any local nursery say, Willow Park nursery and talk to any horticulturist there.

Grab a book called Grow What Where. It has a whole bunch of suitable plants for different scenarios. A great read…

Viburnum tinus in both locations. Can be trimmed or left as an informal hedge, gets flowers and withstands frosts and drought.

Tysen Davis – 0412 900 180

“Sounds to me you’re after an indentured servant more than a gardener.

Lower your standards or be prepared to pay someone the same scale as the work you want.”

At what stage did I say I wouldn’t pay? Funnily enough we do pay our current gardener the rate that we agreed for two hours work, however as I mentioned, he only sticks around for an hour at the moment and about an hour and 45 in the summer. Yes, there’s a bit of mowing and we do have a larger back yard although a lot of it is paved. We do also try to take care of the weeds so it’s not overgrown. The grass in the summer is longer after two weeks, but definintely not unmanageable.

Thanks to other suggestions from those who actually read properly and which did not target my apparent short arms and deep pockets….will consider.

Madam Cholet said :

I recall when I was a kid back in blighty we had a gardener who was an old aged pensioner who spent hours in our very large back garden once a month and did anything and everything because he knew about gardening – in fact, I’m not sure he actually did the mowing as I have memories of family members doing that – but he actual gardened. That’s what I’m looking for, but sadly I know that these days this type of thing is hard to find as the oldies are just far too busy.

Try http://www.greyarmy.com.au

Just curious, how big an area are you looking to keep maintained? 4 hours a month in summer and 1 hour a month in winter seems like an awfully short amount of time to keep anything but a very small garden in check. I know that in the past couple of years in summer, if I miss a weekend’s mowing, things start to get out of hand. Same goes with weeding – and even at this time of the year, I’m seeing weeds poking up a week after doing a thorough job of getting rid of the buggers.

With the amount of time you’re talking, I’m not sure you could expect much more than what you’ve described as getting lately. Believe me, I constantly under-estimate how long it’s going to take to properly deal with parts of the garden. What I think will take me half an hour, takes one and a half.

I think for the level of service you seem to be looking for, you will need to budget for your gardener taking more time.

Madam Cholet said :

OK, attempting to resurrect this post as second gardener since this date is of late not really fitting the bill.

What we want is about two hours work front and back twice a month in summer and once a month in winter. What we are finding is that we get one hour of work in the winter – so just enough to notice he’s been, and in the summer all of the time seems to be filled with mowing and edging. I will admit it looks tidier, and that sometimes there is a bit too much children related detritus around that probably may hamper a corner or two, but it’s obvious that certian sections are ignored time after time – even if we have pointed them out. Don’t mind having to leave a note sometimes to ask for extra jobs to be done, but is it really too much to ask that your gardener has a it of vision and perhaps suggests what needs to be done so you can make a decision on it.

I recall when I was a kid back in blighty we had a gardener who was an old aged pensioner who spent hours in our very large back garden once a month and did anything and everything because he knew about gardening – in fact, I’m not sure he actually did the mowing as I have memories of family members doing that – but he actual gardened. That’s what I’m looking for, but sadly I know that these days this type of thing is hard to find as the oldies are just far too busy.

I’m sure in the nearish sort of future we will take our garden on again, but until that time, this is what we are in need of.

Does anyone know of a gardening service provider who does a bit more than general maintenance, doesn’t mind getting down on hands and knees to pull out a few weeds etc or make suggestions on what should be where etc? Or is this just asking too much? I don’t think it’s a landscape gardener sort of job because we want it to be ongoing.

I might be able to help you out, I’m not a professional, but I have helped my parents recently to completely transform the front and back gardens. I’m don’t have great plant knowledge, my parents did the plant selection whereas I did the rest of the work, such as digging, mulching, shoveling gravel, building mounds, planting, putting irrigation together, weeding etc. I can also doing mowing and trimming (using my own tools) and I’m not so picky as to avoid getting down and doing the actual weeding amongst the plants. I can also prune bushes and tree limbs (we recently cut back our trees to allow more sunlight) and I know how to make compost. As long as you can provide clear instructions I should be able to do what you require.

Madam Cholet said :

OK, attempting to resurrect this post as second gardener since this date is of late not really fitting the bill.

What we want is about two hours work front and back twice a month in summer and once a month in winter. What we are finding is that we get one hour of work in the winter – so just enough to notice he’s been, and in the summer all of the time seems to be filled with mowing and edging. I will admit it looks tidier, and that sometimes there is a bit too much children related detritus around that probably may hamper a corner or two, but it’s obvious that certian sections are ignored time after time – even if we have pointed them out. Don’t mind having to leave a note sometimes to ask for extra jobs to be done, but is it really too much to ask that your gardener has a it of vision and perhaps suggests what needs to be done so you can make a decision on it.

I recall when I was a kid back in blighty we had a gardener who was an old aged pensioner who spent hours in our very large back garden once a month and did anything and everything because he knew about gardening – in fact, I’m not sure he actually did the mowing as I have memories of family members doing that – but he actual gardened. That’s what I’m looking for, but sadly I know that these days this type of thing is hard to find as the oldies are just far too busy.

I’m sure in the nearish sort of future we will take our garden on again, but until that time, this is what we are in need of.

Does anyone know of a gardening service provider who does a bit more than general maintenance, doesn’t mind getting down on hands and knees to pull out a few weeds etc or make suggestions on what should be where etc? Or is this just asking too much? I don’t think it’s a landscape gardener sort of job because we want it to be ongoing.

Sounds to me you’re after an indentured servant more than a gardener. Lower your standards or be prepared to pay someone the same scale as the work you want.

Hi Madam Cholet,

One of my friends who is a bit past gardening for herself uses a guy who does the lawns, prunes, weeds etc. He has also eradicated her cotoneaster (?) problem. Very reliable and does a good job. His number is 0406 227 772. Mark. from Mow and behold.

OK, attempting to resurrect this post as second gardener since this date is of late not really fitting the bill.

What we want is about two hours work front and back twice a month in summer and once a month in winter. What we are finding is that we get one hour of work in the winter – so just enough to notice he’s been, and in the summer all of the time seems to be filled with mowing and edging. I will admit it looks tidier, and that sometimes there is a bit too much children related detritus around that probably may hamper a corner or two, but it’s obvious that certian sections are ignored time after time – even if we have pointed them out. Don’t mind having to leave a note sometimes to ask for extra jobs to be done, but is it really too much to ask that your gardener has a it of vision and perhaps suggests what needs to be done so you can make a decision on it.

I recall when I was a kid back in blighty we had a gardener who was an old aged pensioner who spent hours in our very large back garden once a month and did anything and everything because he knew about gardening – in fact, I’m not sure he actually did the mowing as I have memories of family members doing that – but he actual gardened. That’s what I’m looking for, but sadly I know that these days this type of thing is hard to find as the oldies are just far too busy.

I’m sure in the nearish sort of future we will take our garden on again, but until that time, this is what we are in need of.

Does anyone know of a gardening service provider who does a bit more than general maintenance, doesn’t mind getting down on hands and knees to pull out a few weeds etc or make suggestions on what should be where etc? Or is this just asking too much? I don’t think it’s a landscape gardener sort of job because we want it to be ongoing.

Coming onto the bandwagon a little late, but I heard about escape gardens a little while ago. From what I have heard they can offer advice and source suitable plants. http://www.escapegardens.com.au/index.php

Matt Bligh does a good job, ph 0413 172 182 and he is on the Southside.

For the mowing side of things, just ask if any of the local kids want to make some money. Run the mower round the front and back once a fortnight, I dunno, $25?

(If you’re looking for a lawnmower, see if you can find a secondhand Victa Commando. Can’t kill them with an axe, guaranteed to start first time.)

We’ve just employed Steve from Baya’s Backyard in Palmerston. He’s just resurrected our front yard (and small back yard). Great, friendly service.

I know a diligent fellow who works southside, he specialises in soft planting & pruning & has 25 years experience in Australian & English heritage type gardens. He’s quite in demand, but may be willing to quote – let me know if you’d like details.

Brian Welsh from Brian’s Home and garden has just cleaned up my place. Faced with completely overgrown back yard I decided on the prudent option to outsource and go to work instead. Was blown away by the result in just a day and a half. A genuinely nice guy too. He’s on 0409 126 804

Andrew Wain (part of Jim’s Mowing group) does great work for us on occasion. We’re in Wanniassa, so I assume wherever you are on the south shouldn’t be an issue.

You can contact him on 0418603116

Contact North-South contractors. They are a charitable organisation and do very good work.

41B David St
O’Connor ACT 2602
(02) 6205 1583

Harry from Harry’s Handy Help does a fantastic job at awesome prices. Harry: 0403505714